Murakawa to replace Beverly on El Camino College board
Redondo Beach resident Trisha Murakawa was named the winner in the El Camino College District 3 race Wednesday morning, after having received 21,456 votes. Hermosa Beach resident Siannah Collado Boutte had 14,011 votes and Peter Elhamey Aziz had 3,777 votes. An unspecified number of provisional ballots remained to be counted.
Murakawa said she was congratulated on her victory Wednesday morning by Dena Maloney, and told her swearing in date would be Monday, Dec. 21.
She will replace trustee Bill Beverly, of Manhattan Beach, who is retiring after three decades.
“December 21 is a very meaningful date for me because it is my grandmother’s birthday,” Murakawa said. “My grandfather died young, leaving my grandmother to raise my mother as a single parent. My grandmother valued trust, respect and public service and my mother passed those values on to me.”
“I doubt my grandmother would even have dreamed that one day her grandchild would be elected to public office,” Murakawa said.
She noted that both her maternal and paternal grandfathers were sent to internment camps during World War II.
The most important challenge facing El Camino, Murakawa said, is finding a replacement for president Maloney, who is retiring at the end of the current school year.
El Camino Board’s second priority is the budget, Murakawa said. She is hopeful schools throughout California will benefit from Proposition 15, which held a substantial lead Wednesday morning. The proposition is expected to produce additional revenue for schools by increasing property taxes on commercial property.
Murakawa said she opposes on campus instruction until health officials agree the pandemic no longer poses a threat.
“If people aren’t alive, the economy won’t matter,” she said.
She plans to investigate El Camino partnering with the Southern California Regional Occupancy Center (SCROC). The school, located on Crenshaw Boulevard in Torrance, just a few miles south of El Camino College, offers certificated technical courses to high school students, similar to the vocational courses offered at El Camino. Over the past decades SCROC has repeatedly been threatened with closure because of reductions in state educational spending.
El Camino is recognized for its diverse student body, a distinction Murakawa said she hopes to enhance.
“It’s the people’s college, a place for everyone. As trustee, I want to be sure everyone feels welcome,” she said. ER